Reporter Faces Backlash After Falsely Accusing Kansas City Chiefs Fan of ‘Blackface’
A reporter is facing criticism after making an inaccurate accusation that a young Kansas City Chiefs fan was weaning “blackface” at one of the team’s games.
An article recently published by Deadspin titled “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in blackface, Native headdress,” began by stating, “It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time.” The article includes a photo of a young fan wearing an Indian headdress and shows half of his face covered in black paint.
The article also attempted to link the incident to alleged book bans and legislation against critical race theory, claiming that these right-wing efforts have promoted racism.
“This is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate. You give future generations the ammunition they need to evolve and recreate racism better than before,” the article claims.
However, it was later revealed that the fan was not in blackface but had his face painted half black and half red, representing the team’s colors.
The false characterization of this fan immediately resulted in public backlash on X (formerly Twitter). Despite this, the author of the article doubled down on his claims that the fan was engaging in racist behavior.
“For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse,” said Carron Phillips, author of the Deadspin article. “Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco.”
X users added a community note fact-checking the post, stating, “The colors of the Kansas City Chiefs are red and black. The colors on the fan’s face are a reference to the team colors, not to races or skin colors.”
